practical info

This course is meant for physicists, chemists, engineers or other scientists who need a good conceptual understanding of hyperfine interactions. With ‘conceptual understanding’ we mean: understanding the physical principles behind hyperfine interactions is in this course more important than mathematical derivations. Once you understand the concepts, you will be able to make sense of the many mathematically inspired books on this topic yourself. While trying to study a mathematical hyperfine interaction book without having understood those concepts first, might not be easy.

The expected entry level for this course is a general science background at bachelor level. That means that you should have had introductory courses about classical mechanics, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, and a little bit of quantum physics.

This course is the first one of a series of two. In the present course, hyperfine interactions as a physical phenomenon play the major role. The second course in the series focuses on understanding the concepts of experimental methods that rely on hyperfine interactions. These two courses can be taken independently from each other. Just be aware that for the second course a good conceptual understanding of hyperfine interactions is a strict prerequisite.

These two courses can be taken as free, open online courses by anyone with an internet connection. You can take them self-paced, or in sync with the yearly edition of these courses in the spring term at Ghent University, Belgium (February-May). Volunteering participants may obtain an inofficial certificate that has no legal value whatsoever. Students registered at Ghent University, or students from other universities where this course is adopted by a local staff member, can get regular credit as foreseen in their study program.

This course is an online course, designed to serve simultaneously regular on-campus students as well as volunteering students anywhere in the world. The latter have the choice to take the course in sync with the spring term edition in Ghent, Belgium (February-May), or to take it self-paced. The weekly classroom session takes the form of a feedback webinar, that is livestreamed and recorded.

If you take this course in February-May, synchronized with the live edition, then this is what you can expect:

The spring term has 12 weeks, interrupted by a 2 week Easter break. Each week corresponds to a section of this online course (6 for part A, 6 for part B). You are expected to watch the videos of that week, and to make the associated tasks. When you submit your answer to a task, there is in most cases immediate automated feedback. If after this feedback you still have questions, you can submit your question to a dedicated forum. Your fellow students might help you out, or they can second your question. Every week there is a feedback session where those questions are discussed that were not answered, or that are shared by many students. There is no lecturing during the feedback session, all lecturing happens online via prerecorded videos. Those feedback sessions can be attended in person in class (not in 2021…), but they are also livestreamed and a recording is made available afterwards (that’s why we prefer to call them feedback webinars rather than sessions). Students from Ghent University are free to chose whether they attend these feedback webinars in person (not in 2021…) or online.

Students from Ghent University are graded for this course. Part of the credit is for submitting weekly reports in time. The other part is for the final exam. More details about this during the first feedback webinar. There is no official exam nor certificate provided for students that are not enrolled at a Flemish university, but for those students there is an inofficial honour’s certificate if they complete the required parts of the online course.

If you take this course at your own pace, at any time of the year, then this is what you can expect:

You go through the course at your own pace. You submit your answers to the tasks, and you get immediate automated feedback when available. If the feedback doesn’t clarify everything, or if you have additional questions, you can put them on the fora. If there is a fellow student around in the same time slot, he or she might help you out. If others have asked the same question before, you might find the answer in the recorded feedback webinars. If your question does not get answered, it may be addressed during one of the feedback webinars in the next February-May edition.

There is no official exam nor certificate provided for students that are not enrolled at a Flemish university, but for those students there is an inofficial honour’s certificate if they complete the required parts of the online course.

Studying in an online course is a little different from studying in a traditional face-to-face (f2f) course. Here are some hints that can help you to study in the most efficient way.

It can be a reassuring feeling to have all lectures permanently available as videos, only a few mouse clicks away. And this definitely has advantages. But be careful this doesn’t lure you into a trap. Merely watching a video is not the same as studying. And merely watching a video five times, doesn’t have much added value either. Whenever you watch a video, do the following:

•    Make notes while watching. You can do this by typing if your prefer, or hand-written on the slide handouts that are provided with most videos. Ideally, notes allow you to restudy the content of the video using only your notes and the slide handouts, without a need to rewatch a video. And making notes forces you to be mentally engaged with the material, which means you are not merely watching yet you are studying.
•    When the video goes too fast to allow you to take notes properly, just pause it (that’s a clear advantage over a face-2-face lecture). It’s better to be a bit slower and having excellent notes from which you can study, then being fast with incomprehensible notes that force you to rewatch a video when studying.
•    If there is a section in a video you do not understand at once, you can rewind and watch that section again (here’s another advantage over a face-2-face lecture).
•    If the video goes to slow for you, then feel free to use the speed-up button (one more advantage over a face-2-face lecture). I’m not a professional actor, and was not trained to make recordings when these videos were made. I discovered only later how slowly I speak. Some students like that (easier to make notes), others don’t. If it goes too slow for you, just speed it up. Or slow it down, in case you prefer it even slower.
•    If there is a section in a video where you struggle, and which you would like to watch again later: write down the time stamp in your notes. Similarly, if there is a section you find particularly clear and you want to watch that one again while studying, write down the time stamp. You will not regret, it will save you hours of searching later on.
•    You can watch these videos and do these tasks at a time that suits you best, and not necessarily in one continuous session either (needless to say: another advantage over face-2-face lectures). However, be sure to book time for these video moments in your agenda. When this course was still a face-2-face course, students came 2-3 times per week to campus for a lecture. You don’t need to do that any longer. But that doesn’t mean the work goes away. If you use the time that was previously occupied by those lectures for being more in the lab (or in a bar, or in your bed, for that matter), you still need to do the work for this course at another moment. You have the flexibility to choose your own time, but do plan it. Working for this course is a legitimate part of your activities, and it’s not because it is not planned for you by someone else that you shouldn’t plan it at all.

If you watch the videos in this way, you will be studying efficiently and the need to rewatch videos will be reduced to those sections where it really makes sense for you. That doesn’t mean it is forbidden to rewatch everything. Some students who did take good notes prefer to watch every video a second time before the exam, and get even more out of it with all the background knowledge they accumulated since then. Study habits are personal – go on and find the one that suits you best.

If you intend to take this course in sync with the feedback webinars during the spring term at Ghent University (February-May), then it is recommended to subscribe to a mailing list for administrative messages. Changes in the schedule, important modifications to the course sites, information in case of a site downtime,… will be posted to this list only (in order not to bother people who just want to walk around in this course at their convenience).

Zulip will be used as a tool for this communication. It is forum software. The forum (or ‘stream’ in Zulip slang) with the name ‘administration’ will send every message posted there also as an email. You can use other streams on Zulip for other purposes, without triggering emails.

If you did not yet register to Zulip for this course, do this by clicking this link. If you registered before, you can go directly to the streams by clicking here.

In order to configure the ‘administration’ stream such that it sends you the messages by email too, you have to do the following once:

• Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner of the web or desktop app of Zulip.
• Select Personal settings.
• On the left, click Notifications.
• Toggle the checkbox for email alerts in the Notification triggers table (for the ‘administration’ stream).